KARACHI: Volatility continued to mar the trading of shares on the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday owing to a lack of positive triggers and rising political temperature, said JS Global.

Another reason for the benchmark index to stay range-bound was the everwidening gap of value between the rupee and the dollar, according to Arif Habib Ltd. The rupee closed at 235.88 per dollar after losing 0.66 per cent from a day ago.

Trading began in the positive zone and continued its momentum throughout the day. But gains were wiped out during the last trading hour as investors resorted to profit-taking. Volumes remained healthy in the main-board stocks, it added.

`Going forward, we recommend investors should adopt a buy-on-dips strategy in banking, exploration andproduction and textile sectors,` said JS Global.

As a result, the KSE-100 index settled at 41,772.09 points, down 239.73 points or0.57pc from a day ago.

The trading volume increased 66pc to 260 million shares while the traded value went up 54.4pc to$42.9m on a day-on-day basis.

Stocks contributing significantly to the traded volume included TRG PakistanLtd (27.44m shares), WorldCall Telecom Ltd (21.63m shares), TPL Properties Ltd (21.48m shares), Faysal Bank Ltd(11.22m shares) and K-Electric Ltd (11.13m shares).

Sectors that contributed negatively to the index performance were banking (81.3 points), fertiliser (59.3 points), exploration and production (57.1 points), power (37.5 points) and cement (32 points).

Companies registering the biggest increase in their share prices in absolute terms were Sapphire Textile Mills Ltd (Rs20.01), Siemens Engineering Pakistan Ltd (Rs12.89), Thal Lt d (Rs9.56), ZIL Ltd (Rs9) and MetaTech Health Ltd (Rs8.58).

Shares that declined the most in rupee terms were Bhanero Textile Mills Ltd (Rs97.50), Sapphire Fibres Ltd (Rs78), Premium Textile Mills Ltd (Rs61.86), Nestle Pakistan Ltd (Rs40) and Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd (Rs16.62).

Foreign investors remained net buyers as they purchased shares worth $5.97m.